Ripple wins final OCC approval for national trust bank tied to RLUSD
DeFi & Yields ·
The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted Ripple final clearance to operate Ripple National Trust Bank, putting the reserves behind its RLUSD stablecoin under direct federal supervision.
Ripple's chief executive, Brad Garlinghouse, disclosed the approval publicly, describing it as evidence that digital-asset firms can operate inside the traditional banking system rather than outside it, as reported by CryptoPotato. The new entity is intended to hold and manage the assets backing RLUSD and to serve as collateral trustee for holders of the token, while also offering regulated custody services for digital assets held by enterprise clients. Estimates of the stablecoin's size under this new structure vary by outlet, with Decrypt citing roughly $2.6 billion in RLUSD now falling under the bank's oversight, while other accounts in the same news cycle put the figure closer to $2.5 billion.
The approval follows a conditional charter the OCC issued to Ripple in December 2025 in the same batch that cleared Circle, while BitGo, Fidelity and Paxos moved their existing state trust charters into the federal system. Regulators at the time said each applicant still had conditions to satisfy before becoming fully operational, and Ripple's final sign-off marks the completion of that process. Industry figures framed the move as part of a broader push to bring crypto infrastructure under recognized federal supervision rather than relying solely on state-level charters or informal arrangements, a theme also tracked in ongoing OCC coverage compiled by Leviathan News.
Ripple has pointed to RLUSD's dual oversight — from the OCC and from New York's Department of Financial Services — as a compliance benchmark it says exceeds other stablecoin arrangements. The company's banking integrations have also been expanding separately: earlier this month, Cross River Bank agreed to incorporate RLUSD into its Core Operating System, letting business customers convert between US dollars and RLUSD and route ACH or wire payments through a single API, with settlement on the XRP Ledger completing in roughly three to five seconds, though that service remains limited to select states. The Block also covered the OCC decision, noting it brings RLUSD reserves and custody fully under federal banking rules.
What remains unclear is when Ripple National Trust Bank will actually begin operating, since no launch date accompanied the announcement, and how quickly the bank's custody and reserve-management functions will be rolled out to enterprise clients.